title: Development and validation of the Surgical Recovery Scale (SRS).
abstract: BACKGROUND
  At the present, no fully validated instrument is available for the assessment of general postoperative recovery. Such an instrument would form a useful patient-centered outcome measure in studies evaluating surgical and perioperative interventions. The aim of our study is to develop and validate a summary score based on the Identity Consequence Fatigue Scale (ICFS), for the specific purpose of reliably measuring functional patient recovery following surgery.
  
  
  METHODS
  Patients who underwent elective open or laparoscopic colonic resection between June 2006 and June 2009 were included. The 31 item ICFS was administered at baseline and postoperative d 3, 7, 30, and 60. Item reduction was applied based on defined parameters, to derive a single summary score capable of predicting >90% of the variance present in the original ICFS and maximizing sensitivity to changes over time. The final score was then validated against published criteria as set out by Terwee et al. [2].
  
  
  RESULTS
  Data from 150 patients were included in the analysis. Application of the item reduction process retained 13 items. These items form the Surgical Recovery Scale (SRS). The SRS was able to predict 94% (89.4%-98.1%) of the ICFS subscale variances, and was successfully validated against seven out of eight published validation criteria.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The new SRS is a simple and sensitive tool for the assessment of functional recovery following major surgery. Seven of the eight Terwee et al. validation criteria have been addressed, making this the most broadly validated measure of surgical recovery available.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia.
authors.forename: Johanna S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Paddison
authors.forename: Tarik
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sammour
authors.forename: Arman
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kahokehr
authors.forename: Kamran
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Zargar-Shoshtari
authors.forename: Andrew G
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Hill
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D003106:Colon / Q000502:physiology* / Q000601:surgery*; D003113:Colonoscopy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D010535:Laparoscopy; D008297:Male; D009520:New Zealand; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D011184:Postoperative Period; D016730:Program Development; D020127:Recovery of Function / Q000502:physiology*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires